Blue Sky Trail Marathon Training, Weeks 7-8

School starts and I disappear from the Interwebs, apparently. Now that we’re past the craziness of the first couple of weeks, I should be able to get back to regular posting… at least as regular as I ever am. In the meantime, here’s a rundown of my training over the last two weeks. There’s a serious lack of pictures here, as the vast majority of my runs lately have been either on the treadmill or in the dark. The weather’s supposed to cool down this week, though, so I’ll switch back to post-work running in the daylight.

Monday, August 24

AM: 6.2 miles of “hills” on the treadmill. (Foreshadowing: Later that week, I learned that the “hills” I’ve been doing are inadequate).

PM: My usual strength workout at home

Tuesday, August 25

10.8 easy miles — half on the treadmill, half outside once it got light. Not bad for a school morning.

Wednesday, August 26

8 miles with Jaylin and two guys we know who also run. It was fun to run with a group for once.

Thursday, August 27

AM: 6 miles of short “hill” sprints

PM: Strength training again, a wimpier version of my normal routine because I was tired and cranky and figured anything was better than the nothing I felt like doing.

Friday, August 28

5 miles at recovery pace, followed by core work

Saturday, August 29

I made an extra-long venture up to the trails this week, running the first part of the race course, then back to the second part, which I’d trained on before. Fun fact: this elevation chart from the race’s website is not exaggerated.

Turns out, I should’ve been hitting the incline trainer at my gym instead of my little treadmill all this time. That first climb is a doozy. I had a 16:48 mile in there. But check out the views:

Even though I enjoy the scenery, I hope I can get a leetle stronger on the climb in the next couple of weeks.

I ran 19 miles, and it was tough, but I loved it!

Sunday, August 30

Rest day. I did some easy yoga for my tight hamstrings and hips.

Total: 55 miles

This week was a cutback week, the last until taper.

Monday, August 31

AM: 5 miles easy

PM: Strength, per usual

Tuesday, Sept. 1

5 miles of treadmill hills… on the incline trainer this time.

Wednesday, Sept. 2

Same as last week — 8.1 miles with the same little group.

Thursday, Sept. 3

AM: Short, fast hill intervals for 5 miles

PM: Strength training

Friday, Sept. 4

Rest day. I usually rest Sundays, but I was definitely not resting this Sunday, so I took Friday off instead.

Saturday, Sept. 5

5-mile easy run plus core work, shaking out the legs for…

Sunday, Sept. 6

I paced and helped crew Logan through part of her run at the Hideaway 100 in Winter Park. We ran about 12 miles in the wee hours together, though she had a gnarly blister that made our run more of a hike. I’m counting it as a run anyway. I’m hoping to get a post up about the pacer/crew experience later this week.

Total: 40.1 miles

Now I’ve got two more big weeks, two weeks of taper, and the race! Gulp.

I’m very tired, since I slept about an hour last night and another hour when I got home this morning, and that’s it, so I’m not writing reader questions or proofreading this. Please excuse any stupid typos (Students: Do as I say, not as I do), and tell me whatever you want to in the comments.